The books themselves, in the story, are supposed to be stories that the main character tells to her daughter at night. Originally, the character appeared as part ofthe there's a four panel screen, i guess, that sort of sums up all the characters in the building. And the the b is trapped in the basement of the building itself. In the main character, let's let the bee out. A year after i wrote the story, really, I went down and there's this giant bumble bee banging against the window, and i had to let him out. So, well, talk about a higher plan ido just pure coincidence.
In this audio interview with Debbie Millman, Chris Ware discusses his influences – including sending a Valentine to Charlie Brown – and explains why empathy figures so heavily into his work.